When I was younger, in my twenties, I considered myself a realist. Most people who knew me would have called me a pessimist but I thought I called things as they were and lived in reality. I had no idea reality is something which is made up in one's mind so I spent much of my time looking at things and seeing the worst possibility and believing in the "facts" other people gave me as truth. Lucky for me I dropped being a realist and signed up for optimism because now I believe in all possibilities and I seek in the best in things.
Take for instance this basketball season. Had I been coaching this team full of youngsters and inexperience in my twenties and early thirties, I'm certain I would have listened to the wisdom of all those who would have offered their belief that youth cannot win big games. I would have bought into this hook, line and sinker thinking like most people do that young players don't have the experience to play in tight situations. I would have coached the team with the mindset we would be a good team the next year and take our lumps for the season.
We started the season 0-3 losing to teams which we could have beaten, looking rather raw and incapable of doing anything remotely close to resembling solid basketball fundamentals. The coaches watched from the sideline as we boinked the ball off the backboard on easy put backs, fumbled passes, threw the ball directly to the players who were not on our team, shot a measly 60% from the free throw line and generally looked like a sandlot group of athletes who were playing basketball for the first time in our lives. It was dreadful and I could have believed we were going to drown in this ugliness, swallowing too much of the missed cues, but I chose to believe in what I knew to be this team's potential.
We have speed and more speed, players who are lightening quick and appear like shadows on the court, coming in and out of a play before the opponents can see them. We have rebounders who can jump up with with great hands grab the ball right out of the air and we have this thing called "passion" which flows through so many team members it is like electricity on the court. Because I now believe in miracles, in the creation of great events in our minds, I didn't panic early in the season; I kept the faith knowing these young women would eventually come to see in themselves what the coaching staff saw in them.
Oh, it is still a work in progress and they are still trying to see the best in themselves, but they have improved from November 12th, our first game, to last night in what only could be called an amazing miracle of sorts. In our first contest, we only scored 46 points. Last night we had 44 points at half time. We have won three straight games and totally changed the pace of the way we play. In my old mind, I would have determined this was a fluke, a one time thing, but in my new mindset, I know it is only the beginning of amazing things to come. These young women will get better and better rising to the occasion, learning to see with their dreams rather than with the "facts" other people might try to sell them.
PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.
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